MARKETNEWS Strong M&A VC interest for solar
MERCOM CAPITAL GROUP released funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity for the solar sector during the first quarter of 2011. Venture capital (VC) funding in the solar sector was off to a great start for Q1 2011, coming in at $658m in 25 deals, compared to $238m in the previous quarter and $311m in the first quarter of last year.
The trend was similar with M&A activity amounting to $1.4B in 18 transactions for Q1 compared to $266m in Q4 2010 and $909m in Q1 2010. Debt and other types of funding activities came in at $9.7 billion for the quarter with 15 deals.
“It is clear that VC investor’s appetite for solar has not gone away. In fact, this was the best VC funding quarter since Q2 of 2010 ($948M) and the second best quarter since Q4 of 2008,” commented Raj Prabhu, Managing Partner at Mercom Capital Group.
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The top five funding deals made up for almost 70 percent the total funding in this quarter, led by a $201m Series E raise by BrightSource Energy, a concentrated solar power company. MiaSole, a copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film
panel maker raised $106m in Series F funding; Alta Devices, a gallium arsenide (GaAs) thin-film developer raised $72m in a Series C; Solopower, a CIGS based flexible thin-film maker, raised $51.6m in Series E; and Kiran Energy raised $30m in a Series A.
Thin film companies attracted the most funding with $283 million raised in seven deals. CIGS was the most popular technology within thin films accounting for $196 million in four deals. Concentrated solar power companies raised $212 million in three deals, followed by $84 million raised by solar downstream companies in six deals. There were 55 different VC investors that participated in 24 disclosed deals. Venture capital firms that recorded multiple rounds included
Crosslink Capital, Vantage Point Venture Partners, Convexa Capital Ventures, Hudson Clean Energy Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. In continuing with last year’s trend, VC arms of companies remained active in the solar sector. These investors included Alstom, BP, GE, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Intel and Hanwha. California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS).
Among countries, the U.S. was dominant in VC funding, accounting for 87% of all funding in the first quarter; 89% of all VC funds raised by solar companies in 2010 were also from the U.S. Out of $9.8B announced in debt and other funding, $7.6B came in from the Bank of China for Jinko Solar. This is a continuing trend from the last year, where Chinese government banks provided a total of approximately $34 billion in credit to Chinese solar manufacturers.
There was $2.1 billion in non-Chinese debt transactions showing significant improvement in the credit markets in Q1 2011 compared to previous. There was only $2.2 billion in non-Chinese Debt and other funding in all of 2010.
Voluntary public takeover offer for “Roth & Rau AG”
Meyer Burger Technology has acquired a total of 7.4% of the share capital of Roth & Rau through share purchase and share exchange contracts immediately and 3.9% under the condition precedent of clearance by antitrust authorities from the founders and key shareholders Dr Dietmar Roth (Chief Executive Officer), Prof Dr Silvia Roth and from Dr Bernd Rau on 10 April 2011. In conjunction with these contracts, Meyer Burger issued 840’802 new registered shares out of its authorised share capital.
Meyer Burger will also launch a voluntary public takeover offer to acquire all remaining shares of Roth & Rau AG held by public shareholders at a price of EUR 22 per share in cash. The offer price corresponds to a premium of 41.5% compared with the volume weighted average share price of the last three months. The Executive Board and the Board of Directors of Roth & Rau support the offer by Meyer Burger.
Meyer Burger Group is a provider of systems and production lines for solar and for semiconductor and optics industries (LED).
Roth & Rau Group is a suppliers of production equipment and technologies for the manufacture of solar cells with a strong focus on antireflective coating systems for crystalline silicon solar cells. The company has production sites in Hohenstein-Ernstthal and Eindhoven and employed over 1,200 people at year-end of 2010. Roth & Rau generated net sales of EUR 285 million in fiscal year 2010.
Meyer Burger Group will strengthen its offerings in the solar cell process through the consolidation of both companies and combines the most important technology steps within the value chain of photovoltaics from crystalline silicon to complete solar systems, mainly in the production processes of wafering, solar cells and solar modules.
Peter Pauli, Chief Executive Officer of Meyer Burger Technology Ltd, comments: “With Roth & Rau Group, we further enhance our industry solutions for photovoltaics. With joint activities in research & development, the combination of our distribution networks and through the larger offering of fully integrated system solutions we play a crucial role in further reducing the costs along the value chain in photovoltaics.”
“This is just another step to sustainably reduce the costs of solar power and to help achieving the industry goal of grid parity as fast as possible.”
Dr Dietmar Roth, Chief Executive Officer of Roth & Rau AG: “We are convinced that Meyer Burger is the ideal strategic partner for a continuous dynamic development of our Group. Shareholders, our employees, suppliers and customers as well as the entire solar industry will profit from the new combined group.”
www.solar-pv-management.com Issue IV 2011
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